Friday, 17 October 2014

Well... we have made it! T-Shirt Friday is now officially 25! Like a fine mature cheese T-Shirt Friday has grown from a sparkle of a cotton field in some ones eye to a fully blown piece of well crafted apparel! Happy 25th Anniversary T-Shirt Friday!...and now on with the show and so to the T-Shirt Friday Quiz Conundrum! which was: What is the title of the famously unreleased 1977 Neil Young album? it's quite a tricky one, as 'ole Neil has actually made a follow up to the unreleased album and just as only Neil can do confused us all in the process but the 'unreleased' album is 'Chrome Dreams' it's said that a lot of the tracks on the album have been dispersed onto many of Neil's other albums, there are however apparently some very different takes of the songs we have all come to know and if you own 1993's 'Unplugged' and ever wondered where the beautiful track 'Stringman' came from... it would have been on 'Chrome Dreams'. If you got it right, how will you celebrate? You could shake things up a bit by taking some polish to any chrome surface that you might have around the house... some Cif in the bathroom, some AGA to your fireplace surrounds, a bit of Vitasol on the chrome exhaust tail pipe maybe...Today's T-Shirt was originally from here:http://www.clothingattesco.comSadly they don't seem to do the tee anymore but they do have some other great shirts!If you were to think of a place you would like to visit for a day trip it you might consider Windsor, Greenwich perhaps or maybe Canterbury... what about Taplow? Taplow?? yes near Maidenhead??? Well... Taplow near Maidenhead boasts (if nothing else) one of the biggest car boot sales you can go to, in fact it's termed as "Giant" and "Berks & Bucks Busiest & Best Late Start Car Boot"and while we were still living in Paddington we had a gateway to the stars that sparkle from the rear view mirrors of the unloading cars. One fairly sunny (for a bank holiday) Monday Miss Russell was away and so I took the opportunity to go and see what was going on in Taplow, originally I'd been looking to go to a record fair but this seemed like a very exciting prospect and there is always a possibility of picking up some vinyl at a car boot, expectations were high and Taplow met them ten fold and then some... it really is a 'huge' car boot with loads to offer, a lot of bargain vinyl, a lot of everything and some great food stalls for lunch too... Miss Russell called me on the mobile while I was munching through a German bratwurst hot dog that was the size of an OTRAG rocket!It was a wonderful day, some great boot bargains, very friendly people, it's a family originated event for all! The train station is right near by, it's a direct line from Paddington with no changes, a low price train ticket and about a 45min journey, the ease of travel was mind blowing or so I thought...The following week while recounting all of this to my Mum and Dad on the phone, we thought it would be great to all go for a family day out. Unfortunately though there were no more bank holidays coming up... Do not fear Taplow is on Sundays too!!! Similar to the stars doing it - the front car tyres had aligned with the back ones! Sadly Miss Russell was again away (is there a pattern emerging) but Mum and Dad could make it... the plan was for them to stay at the flat on the Saturday night for ease of travel in the morning, when they arrived they presented me with the below t-shirt, it seemed very apt and has since been dubbed 'the car boot t-shirt'. After watching 'The Black Hole' on DVD and a fish finger sandwich or two we all headed off for a good nights sleep and awoke at the designated time of 7am ready for the car boot ahead, you could feel the atmosphere crackle with anticipation, I popped on 'the car boot tee' and off we all went to Paddington station to re-tread the steps to Taplow... something was amiss... this time there was no direct train to the station, after a little confusion though it emerged that we could go to Slough and take a bus that would drop us at the foot of the boot... The train started to slowly leave the station and we were off! Mum and Dad both looking forward to some bargains... The trip to Slough was very quick and we made our way off the train and towards where we thought the pick up point for the bus was... we checked with a station member and were pointed in a slightly different direction but eventually found the stop... we waited... actually not all that long... a bus pulled up... we almost all got on but something made my Mum just check with the driver "Ah sorry... this bus doesn't stop at Taplow" "the next bus might go there". It came across like he wasn't too sure, we had our doubts, we exited the bus, as we did a jolly station member was passing: "In all the years that I've worked here and that is over 25 years mind, I've never heard of a bus going from this station or any on this line, to Taplow on a Sunday" We all had the same group thought... Hmmm...To Be Continued...There we are, stranded in Slough! ...and so until next week for the final finale of 'The Car Boot Caper!' but before that here is the T-Shirt Friday Quiz Conundrum! Which this week is: Which famous musician and pioneer of electronic music went to school in Slough?More info on Taplow Car Boot Sale? - http://www.giantcarboot.co.uk/taplow.htmlMore info Pioneers of electronic music? - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_musicThe OTRAG rocket - http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/otrag.htmDisney's The Black Hole - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_HoleHow to make a great fishfinger sandwich - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_finger_sandwich